The USG Open Source Center translates the fatwa of Ayatollah Kadhim al-Ha’iri (Haeri) condemning any security agreement between Iraq and the United States (Via BBC Monitoring). Haeri, an Iraqi, lives in Qom because he refuses to reside under foreign military occupation. He is sometimes called Iraq’s ‘fifth grand ayatollah.’ The other four live in Najaf and are less involved in politics than Haeri.

OSC also translates a program of the Iranian Arabic-language satellite channel, al-Alam (The World) on opposition by Iraqi politicians in the southern Shiite port city of Basra to the proposed US-Iraqi security agreement. The report quotes a member of the al-Da’wa Party but that party has 2 branches and it is not clear if it is Prime Minister al-Maliki’s branch. It also quotes Sadrist Salah al-Obeidi. The allegation is made that there are fatwas from Iraqi Shiite ayatollahs forbidding the agreement.

‘May 29, 2008 Thursday

IRAQ’S AYATOLLAH AL-HA’IRI ADVISES AGAINST SECURITY AGREEMENT WITH US

Text of report by Lebanese-based Shi’i News Agency website

[Shi’i News Agency headline: “Statement by Religious Authority Al-Sayyid Al-Ha’iri on the US Government Agreement with the Iraqi Government”]

The religious authority, His Eminence Grand Ayatollah Al-Sayyid Kazim al-Husayni al-Ha’iri, may his shadow lasts, has issued a statement on the US agreement with the Iraqi government. The following is text of the statement:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. praised be God, and may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon Muhammad and his good, chaste family members. “And incline not to those who do wrong, or the Fire will seize you” “Islam rises above all and none rises above it.” [Koranic verses]

My dear sons in our occupied Iraq: May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.

You are aware that the occupiers of Iraq want to legalize their illegitimate presence on our land so that it will be possible for them to tamper with the security of the homeland and the citizen and to continue to plunder the country’s resources and thus increase the poverty and deprivation. They want to force the Iraqi Government to agree, under the excuse of removing Iraq from the Seventh Chapter of the UN Charter, to completely concede Iraq’s independence and resources and make its presence and future go with the wind, where it will not have authority or sovereignty, and force it to agree to provisions that will stamp the stigma of humiliation and disgrace on Iraq’s forehead forever.

Such enforcement on the government will not leave any dignity or sanctity to the individual. They want their dog, which is squatting on Iraq, protected from any accountability by the government or the nation. They want all Iraq’s political and legal entities: The presidency, Prime Ministry, and Council of Representatives, as well as the nation to be accountable to the Americans. “If they enter a country, they despoil it, and make the noblest of its people its meanest. Thus do they behave.” [Koranic verse]

Besides, the American, who has entered Iraq with the slogan of liberation, soon announced himself an occupier. He did not fulfil any promise. Therefore, is any goodness expected from such agreements?

From the position of fatherhood, I give my advice to every official in this nation not to stain himself with such an agreement. Let him fear God for what is left of his dignity.

Let everyone know also that such an agreement will not be binding to anyone, except to the one who signs it. No one should ever think that he can plot against our nation despite its preoccupation with its tragedies; the killing, destitution, starvation, and deprivation. All this is the work of the Americans and their supporters. The nation, whom Prophet Muhammad, may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, awakened, will not accept humiliation and disgrace. Here is his grandson, Al-Husayn, peace be upon him, crying out defiantly: “Never will we be humbled.”

Our zealous sons, we are going through a difficult test. We have no other choice but to adhere to the truth together. Do not ignore what is being plotted against you and do not busy yourselves with trivial matters that lead to differences between you. This is the wish of your enemy, who is lying in wait for you.

Place your trust in Allah, close your ranks, stay alert, and watch out of your enemy.

I address the occupation from my place here by repeating the words of our Lady Zaynab, peace be upon her: “Go ahead and plot and do what you like, but by God you will never wipe out our Koran and revelation.”

Dear sons: Let me tell you. The blessed religious seminary in Iraq is dearer, cleaner, higher, and nobler than the recognition of the legitimacy of such an agreement.

(Newsreader) Representatives of political, religious parties and currents in Basra were unanimous in their rejection of the security treaty which Washington plans to conclude with Baghdad. Shaykh Salah al-Ubaydi, representative of the Sadrist Trend in Basra, said that the Trend was committed to fatwas issued by religious authorities which prohibited such treaties.

(Reporter) A political and popular rejection of the security treaty to be signed between Iraq and the United States was voiced by representatives of political and popular forces in Basra. Basra’s representatives in the Iraqi parliament rejected the treaty on the grounds that it is an infringement on Iraq’s sovereignty and a threat to neighboring countries. It goes against the Iraqi constitution which specifies that Iraq must not be used as a springboard for aggression against neighboring countries.

(Abd al-Musawi, Al-Dawah Party MP) We should not sign a treaty with the US which threatens our neighbors. We do not accept for Iraq to become a base from which to launch attacks on our neighbors or to set up bases in Iraq which threaten our neighbors or seek to interfere in their interests.

(Salah al-Matat, member of Basra’s Provincial Council) If this treaty is not clear and not formed on the basis of parity, then it will represent a future threat. We want Iraq to be independent and not to fall under anyone’s protection.

(Reporter) The spokesman of the Sadrist Trend Shaykh Salah al-Ubaydi reiterated his rejection of the treaty and said that it aims to solidify the US presence in Iraq, a matter which religious authorities have prohibited.

(Shaykh Salah al-Ubaydi) The office of the Martyr Al-Sadr has made clear its position on the security treaty between the US and Iraq. It is rejected and is unacceptable and there are many fundamental reasons why it is unacceptable. One of these is the verdict of the religious authorities in this regard. Sayid al-Ha’iri has issued a statement in which he rejected (the security treaty) and also the office of Sayid Al-Sistani has clarified in a number of oral questions a rejection of the treaty.

(Reporter) On the fringes of a human rights meeting, the leaders of Basra’s religious and political blocs have urged the Iraqi government to reject the security treaty with the US forces and replace it with treaties with Iraq’s neighbors that guarantee Iraq’s security and sovereignty. The US-Iraqi treaty thus faces popular and political rejection because it is seen as an infringement on Iraq’s sovereignty and a cause of concern for the region’s security.